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The Ultimate in New Music |
| Section: THE ARTS / MUSIC |
| Author: Octavio Roca |
| Publication:
The World & I Online |
| Issue Date: 1/1/1993 |
| Size: 2,105 Words, 13,191 Characters |
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Norway's ambitious bid for the major leagues of international festival paid off this October with the second Oslo Ultima Contemporary Music Festival, directed by the Norwegian composer John Persen. Following the success of 1991's festival debut, Ultima 1992 merged with the celebrated Nordic Music Days for a combined feast of the best in new music.
With typical modesty, Ultima again did not choose Norwegian music to either open or close the festival, opting instead for Swedish and American scores for the first concert, French and Italian for the last. The rich eclectism of the music chosen--from serialism from bravely holding the old fort to an onslaught of exuberant American Minimalism--was surpassed only by the uniformly high quality of the performances by artists as diverse as the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, France's Ensemble Fa, Italy's Antidogma Musica, and Norway's own BIT 20, one of the festival's happiest discoveries.
The opening concert began early in the afternoon October 3 with an unannounced prologue by the Norwegian surrealist poet Kjell Erik Vindtorn. His impromptu recitation onstage at the Lindamansalen, backed by improvised percussion from the Oslo Sinfonietta, set a tone of loopy informality that surfaced here and there throughout the festival. Then came the music, and th...
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...of the festival, Murail's "Treize couleuers du soleil couchant," played with frenzied abandon by Antidogma Musica from Turin, offered the ineffably said radiance of the late Olivier Messiaen's spirit as a touching homage during Ultima's closing concert at Dem Game Logen. Somewhere in the heaven, that gentlest genius of our century's great music must have been smiling down on Oslo in October.
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Publication Details
(The World & I Online) |
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The World & I Online is a
comprehensive academic resource that encompasses a broad range of
articles by scholars and experts in the areas of Global Studies,
Liberal Arts, Fine & Applied Arts, General Science, and Spanish.
Originally published monthly in print as The World & I, our site
includes the complete contents since 1986 and continues to publish
a new issue online each month. |
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